The following post was published 11/February/2009 in the now more less abandoned Usenet Newsgroup rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad. I wanted to re-post this because it’s an interesting read (and some day, I think, Google might decided that Google Groups archive is no longer a worthwhile enterprise). Obviously I added some of the crypt pictures for better visualization (and did some formatting on the text).

I’ve mentioned in other threads that some of the vampires in KoT come from a supplement White Wolf printed for Mind’s Eye Theatre.

Since I co-authored that supplement (and was responsible for creating the specific vampires for it), LSJ was nice enough to let me provide the guidelines to be given to the artists making the art for those 20-odd vampires that got made into VTES cards. The general length and content matched some samples LSJ had given me of notes for previous vamps, so this should give some idea of the sort of notes artists typically receive.

Let me caveat this by saying I had no idea which artists would get which vampires, and I don’t know how much time any of them had or if any had to be rushed by a substitute artist under extreme time pressures or any of that. And of course the artists could embellish or ignore the notes given as they chose; they were very much just meant as guidelines, not absolutes.Continue Reading

The following has been posted on February 10th, 2009 by John Flourney in the VtES Usenet Newsgroup:

I’ve mentioned in other threads that some of the vampires in KoT come from a supplement White Wolf printed for Mind’s Eye Theatre.
Since I co-authored that supplement (and was responsible for creating the specific vampires for it), LSJ was nice enough to let me provide the guidelines to be given to the artists making the art for those 20-odd vampires that got made into VTES cards. The general length and content matched some samples LSJ had given me of notes for previous vamps, so this should give some idea of the sort of notes artists typically receive.
Let me caveat this by saying I had no idea which artists would get which vampires, and I don’t know how much time any of them had or if any had to be rushed by a substitute artist under extreme time pressures or any of that. And of course the artists could embellish or ignore the notes given as they chose; they were very much just meant as guidelines, not absolutes.

In reference to the Legacies of Blood Top Ten list made by Greg Williams in January 2006, I would like to show you a similar list, namely the top ten of the Keepers of Tradition expansion, at least from my point of view:

Top Ten Library Cards

1.

Enkil Cog — the card that produced the most hype in the Usenet Newsgroup (at least there). Because it makes playing big caps more worthwhile it definitely deserves its place among the Top Ten.Decks: Any high cap. deck, and especially those with vampires that can untap via special ability like Eze, Masika, etc.

2.

Ashur Tablets — This card gives recursion/twister decks a new plaything, a good one one, too. It’s nicely balanced, because if you’re not the only one playing this card at a table, there will be a race for putting the first set into play. On the other hand it’s like an improved Ascendance, where you collect 3 pool for three Ashur Tablets played.Decks

: Any Twister deck, Speed Shamblers.

3.

Deep Song — this card makes a lot of Animalism decks more competitive. Although strictly speaking it’s not a combo card, with the +bleed and the enter combat features it practically is. And it’s a decent replacement or addition to Tier of Souls or Taunt the Caged Beast.Decks: Weenie Animalism, other combatish decks that play Animalism combat like Animalism Bruise & Bleed.

4.

Eyes of Argus — this is the new uber-card for all the wall decks based on Auspex. Untap or getting +2 intercept (ven though it’s only against (D) actions) is just to sweet to comprehend.Decks: All decks featuring Auspex for intercept, Weenie Auspex being the most likely candidate.

5.

Touch of Clarity — this card has a hot future in any Dementation Stealth Bleed deck. In tournaments you can assume that either your predator or prey (if not both) use bleed bounce based on Dominate. You now can easily overcome this by canceling Deflection, etc.; either when you’re acting or when a bleed is deflected to you.What I don’t understand, why the development team didn’t make this card an uncommon, since it is a card that one would pack into a deck 4 to 6 times. This creates an unhealthy high demand for this card.What I don’t understand why this card is a rare card. If the development decides to unleash such a beast, it should do it in way that any player can acquire the card with reasonable means.

Decks: Any Dementationb bleed deck.

6.

Villein — the card that will eventually remove Minion Tap from the tournament scene (as soon as the card has a wider circulation than today). In contrast to Vessel it has a lingering affect and even stacks when it comes down to paying costs of Minion Tap.Decks: Any deck that now runs Minion Tap, all decks that like to hose Minion Tap decks.

7.

Perfect Paragon — a good card which gives the Ventrue the much needed stealth, e.g. for getting a crucial second stealth when performing political actions. Toreador and Brujah decks might use it, too, with Resist the Earth Grasp they can get even +3 stealth on political actions for “only” a cost of 2 blood. And even if the stealth is not needed that cards gets you +3 votes in a referendum, so Bewitching Oration is the most likely candidate for being replaced by Perfect Paragon.Decks: Vote decks without proper access to stealth, maybe even Dominate/Presence bleed decks, which can get +2 stealth using Perfect Paragon and Bonding.

8.

Scourge of the Enochians — obviously a weenie killer card, which is kind of a silver bullet against the rampaging Breed & Boon decks, which won a fair share of tournaments in 2008. Also nicely balanced, since other players who control this event may choose to burn a vampire (of capacity 2 or below) or not, similar to the possibility of Week of Nightmares to put nightmare counters on Ravnos vampires or not.Decks: Due to the silver bullet nature of the deck, you’ll find this card in a lot of decks, especially on tournament level.

9.

Ponticulus — the new ally for clan Tremere is probably the best ally since Carlton van Wyk, and he’s very comparable to him. Like Carlton he has +1 intercept, though Ponticulus only has intercept against (D) actions. Both are somewhat hard to kill for a non-combat deck, and they both rock when an Unmasking is in play.Decks: Tremere decks of course. O.K. Mata Hari decks and the like are suited as well ..

10.

Papillion — the new super hunting ground (Gurchon Hall is also cool, but requires more rare cardinals). With abundant vampires with city titles, you will see this card quite often in the near future. Although the card costs three pool, the first net benefit is gained in just two turns, whereas the regular hunting grounds need three rounds for that.Decks: Any deck with a sufficient number of vampires with a city title.

Runners up

Disappointments

But where’s light there’s also darkness (or was it the other way around in the World of Darkness). Some cards when shown in the preview or spoiled on the Usenet Newsgroup wasn’t as promising as it looked in the first place.

Dark Influences — just a tad too expensive. Yes, cancels the next minion card canceling a card, yes, it prevents the same card played again this turn, but still .. I’d rather put two Direct Intervention in my deck.

Torrent — a tad too weak to be useful. Nobody wants to play an additional strike for two blood, and the continue action is not so good, since it lacks the additional stealth (compare Form of Mist) and the fact that the “continue action” clause is required to be used if your vampire is the acting minion.

Top Ten Crypt Cards

1.

Lutz von Hohenzollern (Malkavian) — He is clearly the strongest vampire in KoT, Of course he has the basic attributes of an Inner Circle member (4 votes and +2 bleed), but in addition, he has a suitable combination of disciplines (AUS, PRE, OBF, ..) he also has this great special, where you do not even have to play political actions yourself or target your prey to make your prey loose a pool.In the near future he will share the same affection by players as Arika has now.

2.

Dmitra Ilyanova (Brujah) — Fortitude, Obfuscate, three votes and a very reasonable special ability make up the formula for success of this vampire. If you have vote lock, this can result in massive blood/pool gain, especially with a couple of Blood Dolls on the table.

3.

Mary Ann Blaire (Ventrue) — nearly as good as Dmitra Ilyanova. Their special abilities are quite comparable, but Mary Ann Blaire lacks Obfuscate, Dimitra on the other hand has no discipline bounce discipline (Auspex/Dominate).

4.

Vidal Jarbeaux (Toreador) — his special ability is similar to that of Mata Hari, and he (like Mata Hari) is a vampire you want to build a deck around to use all those different cards that normally doesn’t fit together because of the different requirements.

5.

Mistress Fanchon (Tremere) — her card fetching ability is quite unique, other cards able to search your library for a card are limited to specific types of cards.

The Ankou (Malkavian) — after Nakhthorheb another 10 cap vampire with “just” the in-clan disciplines, but a spectacular special, that makes you build a deck around him. The only setup you probably need is a possibility to untap The Ankou like Metro Underground or a Helicopter. Enkil Cog also helps, if nobody bothers or dares to hunt.

9.

Randall (Gangrel) — the special ability to prevent damage on another minion gives ample opportunities for using Randall, e.g. preventing damage for allies who cannot prevent themselves like the Renegade Garou or Carlton van Wyk.

10.

Carlak (Brujah) — little brother of the group 2 Euro-Brujah, he’s one generation younger than the “old” Euro Brujah. A very solid vampire you may also see in Ventrue or Toreador vote decks.

After finally receiving the booster boxes of the VtES expansion “Keepers of Tradition” I eagerly opened them, but then always had the distinct feeling, that I see the same boosters (in some variation) over and over again. So instead of just ripping the boosters open and sorting the cards immediately, I started writing down what cards appeared in which section (common/vampires/uncommon/rares). And soon I could see some distinct patterns in the distribution.

I must admit the sample size of 2 booster boxes is quite small, but the fact that just I received such a peculiar distribution would be too much of a coincidence.

Common Cards
The common cards are coming in “sets” of 5 cards each, which fits into 20 sets for the 100 common cards. The good thing is each booster display with 36 boosters contains 1-2 of the sets. So you’re guaranteed to get 1-2 common cards in each booster display.

Uncommon Cards
The uncommon cards come in ~50 sets of two each, but these sets seem to be more irregular than the sets of common cards, e.g. “Change of Target”, “Society of Leopold” and “Flesh of Marble” appear twice in the sets below.

Academic Hunting Ground — Ventrue Headquarters

Aching Beauty — Dawn Operation

Arms Dealer — The Becoming

Asylum Hunting Ground — Persona Non Grata

Behind You — Sniper Rifle

Blood Hunt — Papillion

Blood of the Sandman — Vulnerability

Bomb — Raven Spy

Burst of Sunlight — Minor Boon

Caseless Rounds — Psyche

Change of Target — Society of Leopold

Charming Lobby — Toreador Grandball

Dark Influences — Eagle Sight

Dark Mirror of the Mind — Wash

Delaying Tactics — Coterie Tactics

Dragon Breath Rounds — Elysium

Effective Management — Childling Muse

Elysium Versailles — Powerbase: Chicago

Fame — Assault Rifle

Fifth Tradition — Flesh of Marble

Flesh of Marble — Protected Resources

Frontal Assault — Graverobbing

Ghoul Retainer — Zoo Hunting Ground

Helicoper — Taste Of Vitae

Heroic Might — Weighted Walking Stick

Immortal Grapple — Scourge

Improvised Flamethrower — The Labyrinth

IR Googles — Archon Investigation

Kevlar Vest — 3rd Tradition: Progeny

Kindred Intelligence — Perfect Paragon

KRCG Newradio — Instability

Leech — Ankara Citadel

Light Intensifying Googles — Rumors of Gehenna

Loyal Street Gang — Voice of Madness

Major Boon — Pier 13, Baltimore

Mask of 1K Faces — Amaranth

Metro Underground — Elder Kindred Network

Muddled Vampire Hunter — Change of Target

Old Friends — Movement of the Slow Body

Owl Companion — Scorn of Adonis

Repair the Mortal Flesh — Weather Control

Scrounging — Justicar Retribution

Second Tradition Domain — Shatter

Society of Leopold — Vast Wealth

Spying Mission — Backways

Still the Mortal Flesh — The Rack

Torn Signpost — Charismatic Aura

Uptown Hunting Ground — Aura Reading

Villein — Slum Hunting Ground

Warzone Hunting — Fast Hands

Will of the Council — Fourth Tradition: The Accounting

Wooden Stake — Bounty

Vampire Cards
The vampires do not appear in sets since the remainder of total cards (100) divided by cards in that slot (3) is not zero, but one. So you get kind of “rolling set”, and with that type of distribution you can always predict the next two cards after seeing the first in a set of three. For example, if your first vampire is “Baron Dieudonne”, the next two are guaranteed to be “Jeremy Wix Wyzchovsky” and “Iris Bennett”, or if the first vampire is “Iris Bennett”, the next two are guaranteed to be “Kalila” and “Rutor”. The order of vampires are:

Rare Cards
Here the sample I have is too small for an exact analysis. But from what I learned during conversations with other players, there seem to be a similar pattern for the rare cards as for the vampire cards. In this case the slot for the rares is not a single booster but a single booster display. So again the remainder when dividing the total number of rare cards (100) by the slot size (36) is non-zero, so you can see often the same rares when comparing two booster display contents. But again for a complete analysis, the sample size I had is just to small. On the other hand when opening the first booster display during the german Limited championship and my own first booster display, we had two times all the three pool gaining cards (“Arcane Library”, “Eco Terrorists” and “Art Museum”).

Summary
The distribution in the “Keepers of Tradition” boosters is only pseudo-random at best. You can predict for the non-rare cards what you are going to get in a given booster in each rarity slot when seeing the first card in that slot. The randomness of booster content comes more from the composition of different common, uncommon & vampire “sets” as shown above.

I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. On one hand you can have a very flat distribution of cards in the area of common/uncommon/vampire cards, so you’ll always have one or two “Mirror Walks” or “On the Qui Vive” in your booster display. On the other hand you’ll never have the chance of getting more than two common cards in a given display. The worst thing is the seemingly non-random distribution of rare cards, where the same pattern/order of rare cards are encountered. So if you’re buying two booster boxes, you maybe unlucky and get almost the same set of rare cards twice.

A few (..cough) mishaps happened during the development & production of the new VtES expansion “Keepers of Tradition” (KoT). Looks as if White Wolf had a slight quality assurance problem with this expansion. In contrast the previous three expansions from “Sword of Caine” to “Twilight Rebellion” were almost error free.

Imprecise announcement
The original announcement of KoT stated that the expansion will contain 20 new rare, uncommon and common cards each. In the end the count was 16 rare, 19 uncommon and 17 common cards.

Missing vampires
Although fully designed the following three vampires didn’t make it to final set, since all vampires cards slots were used. You can also see a picture of “Hiram ‘Hide’ DeVries” card on the White Wolfwebsite for KoT. (Or maybe showing these vampires to the public is goody from LSJ)

Osric Vladislav
Clan: Malkavian
Group: 5
Capacity: 7
Disciplines: AUS DEM OBF cel
Camarilla: Osric may burn a location you control to get +1 stealth for the current action.

Rulebook Misprint
Instead of a new rulebook, the rulebook of “Lords of the Night” was shipped with “Keepers of Tradition” (except for the cover of the booklet). So the three rules changes posted on the KoT webpage are missing.

Card Errata
Unfortunately the “Approximation of Loyalty” version released in “Keepers of Tradition” has a printing error. The requirement for using the card is still a vampire with a capacity of seven or more. LSJ has confirmed this in this Newsgroup Thread.

P.S.: No, I don’t count the fact, that “Parity Shift“, “Deflection” and “Govern the Unaligned” are not included in “Keepers of Tradition” as mishap. That was done deliberately, though I don’t know the reasoning behind this decision.

Today is the official release date of the new VtES expansion “Keepers of Tradition“. Also the official checklist/webpage for the expansion is online now. Beside ten card previews and the complete list of cards included in the expansion, the list of rule changes and an FAQ are shown on the webpage. The most interesting news are the actual rule changes, so here they are:

Directed actions. An action is directed if it targets one or more other Methuselahs, even if it also targets yourself. Directed actions can be blocked by the ready minions controlled by any of the target Methuselahs (going clockwise, as usual).

Inner Circle titles. The title of Inner Circle is unique per clan and can only be held by a member of the clan (like Justicar titles).

Madness Network no longer has “after finishing all of his or her minion phase actions” phrasing. The Malkavians can act via the Madness Network in regular sequence order. This eliminates the need for an after-actions portion of the minion phase in which, for example, an empy vampire could untap with Rutor’s Hand and not have to hunt.

For the upcoming VtES expansion “Keepers of Tradition” I have put up in the Polish VtES forumlists of the new Crypt and Library cards, as well as those reprinted in the boosters. This information comes primarily from IRC channel #vtes, the Usenet Newsgroup as well as various VtES forums around the world: